When we first met Honda, we were worried about their global strapline, 'The Power of Dreams'. We thought about changing it. We wondered if we could make it really small and hide it. But we learned that it came directly from the philosophy of Soichiro Honda, the company's founder. We worked with it and used it as a way to explain Honda's point of view. In the end, 'the power of dreams' turned out to be a good thing for our work.
But I'm not so sure about the line I've noticed Suzuki has been using to sign off its UK campaign: 'Way of life!' Apparently this is intended to convey that they make "vehicles that are designed for life enthusiasts – those who choose to live life to the fullest and not simply watch it go by".
But I can't help being reminded of the strange and charming 'Japlish' sometime used in Japanese brand names and slogans - 'Pocari Sweat' drink and T shirts that say things like 'Active sports life I maintain'.
(Kind of the Asian equivalent of western people who have T -shirts or tattoos of 'cool' Japanese kanji characters but don't know what they actually mean.)
The exclamation mark on Way of Life! somehow enhances that perception. But, rather than acknowledging the Japlish vibe and exploiting it to acquire a bit of Japanese pop culture cool - like Uniqlo has been doing recently - the Suzuki UK campaign seems to be trying to ignore the whole 'Way of Life!' thing. Instead, it's borrowed Harp's old 'Time for a Sharp Exit' campaign and adapted it to 'Time for a Swift Exit.'
It's a bit of a missed opportunity, as it would have been great to see the Swift advertised with a line like,"Go super young sexy driving life like me".
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It could be worse. What was it Renault had on their Clio ads - "An Exterior Sign of Inner Wealth" or something equally pretentious, meaningless and/or mis-translated.
Meanwhile, for more Japlish hilarity, try the sublime www.engrish.com
Posted by: John | May 13, 2008 at 12:10 PM
they've been using "way of life" for around four years now, so you haven't been paying that much attention
Posted by: turd | May 13, 2008 at 02:36 PM
I wonder if it was anything to do with the quality of the advertising that led me not to notice it?
Posted by: neil | May 13, 2008 at 04:27 PM
it is shocking - you gets what you pay for.
that's the real "way of life".
Posted by: turd | May 15, 2008 at 05:21 PM
sorry to be a pain in your ass, but Honda's line before WK London started work on the account wasn't Power Of Dreams.
as you can see in this making of Cog video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-960793573142648647
(4:00 timemark), it was the Passion to Drive (or something simmilar)
I've got such a long-reaching memory (or useless stuff like this piece of info :-))
Posted by: radovan grezo | May 16, 2008 at 01:46 PM
I think that line may have been used in some countries in connection with motor racing but 'The Power of Dreams'has been their global strapline since before we were involved in the business:
http://world.honda.com/ThePowerofDreams/
Posted by: neil | May 16, 2008 at 02:44 PM
Difficult Is Worth Doing
Honda
The Power of Dreams
... This is getting as messy as the Suzuki stuff
Posted by: turd | May 30, 2008 at 12:40 PM